Thursday, April 20, 2006

On the religious exemption to the requirement of public school attendance

The Fredericksburg paper comments here on the state of the religious exemption from public school attendance in Virginia. The commentary begins:

"VIRGINIA LAW gives any school-age child a unique right: the right not to attend school.

If parents attest that it is against their faith to send their children to school, they can remove them without penalty or oversight. These children are religiously exempt from the state's compulsory attendance law. And unlike with home-schooled children, the state no longer monitors religiously exempt children's academic progress.

Some think the law is working just fine. Others say elected and school officials have abdicated their responsibility to children."